Thomas Smeaton was born in London "within sound of Bow Bells", and trained as an engineer. He was sponsored by the South Australian Company to emigrate to South Australia, but finding no opening for an engineer joined the Company's financial institution, the Bank of South Australia as a clerk sometime before 1856, later as the bank's accountant. In 1864 he was appointed manager of the newly formed branch in Robe, where he was an active as President of the Robe Institute, and where his wife, a popular Sunday-school teacher, died in childbirth. He returned to the Adelaide head office as assistant manager, and served as manager on numerous occasions between 1870 and 1884 when he retired to his home "Dalebank" in Blakiston. Around 1904 he moved to Mount Lofty, where he died after some months in poor health. His wife Selina later lived at Brunswick Road, Dulwich.
Other interests
Smeaton was a well-read man, both of literature and scientific subjects, of which he had a wide knowledge and great enthusiasm. He was in 1853 a founding member of the Adelaide Philosophical Society, and chairman in 1860. Professor Stirling was a firm friend, as was Professor Robert Chapman of Adelaide University. An article by him on rainbows was published in Nature; he regularly contributed articles to The Register, and he corresponded with many authors of Encyclopædia Britannica articles, offering useful criticism. He was a member of the Adelaide Hospital Board for some years, and was one of the founders and longtime honorary secretary of that hospital's Good Samaritan Fund.
Family
He married Mary Ann Green who died in childbirth at Robe. He married again, in 1871, to Selina Jane Witt ; their children included:
Stirling Smeaton B.A., A.M.I.C.E., one of the first two graduates from University of Adelaide; railway engineer then with the Engineer-in-Chief's department. Noted field naturalist, he never married.
Edna Smeaton married Thomas Luscombe Wright on 15 August 1895
Fabrian Smeaton, died at Mount Lofty
Ida Smeaton
Dr. Bronte Smeaton married Elizabeth Florence Moule on 16 June 1900. Elizabeth was a daughter of John Moule MHA. He married again, to Josephine Lucie Cordelia "Jo" Wigley, daughter of Glenelg mayor Henry Rodolph Wigley, on 18 May 1904. They lived at Blakiston, then Mount Barker, later Barton Terrace, North Adelaide. He was medical superintendent of Adelaide Hospital for a few years then had a practice at Mount Barker where he was a prominent citizen and member of Adelaide Hunt Club.
Graham Smeaton married Helena Winifred "Nell" Maynard in 1920. He was manager of C. Wright's estate on the Bay Road.
There is no evidence of his being closely related to the South Australian politician Thomas Hyland Smeaton. Miss Matilda Witt, Mrs Smeaton's sister, lived with them at "Dalebank", Blakiston, afterwards at Nairne.
